Election expert: It’s likely too late to request a mail-in ballot even if it’s legal

David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, is encouraging voters to vote in-person if possible and put extra thought into when and how you vote.

Mr. Becker, a former senior trial attorney in the U.S. Justice Department’s voting section between 1998 and 2005, said mail-in voting is as secure as in-person voting but late-deciding voters need to get prepared.

“I think if a voter is thinking of voting by mail and they haven’t requested a mail ballot, I would advise that it’s too late to request a mail ballot at this point even if it’s legally allowed,” Mr. Becker said on a call with reporters on Wednesday. “Secondly, I’d advise if you have requested a mail ballot and it hasn’t arrived yet, you’re probably at the point where you should go to plan B and go vote in-person, preferably early if you can.”

Mr. Becker said mail-in voting will not be the best option for everyone and voters who choose to vote early and in-person may help alleviate the burden of poll workers on Election Day.

“There are many things that happen in mail voting that become the responsibility of the voter alone, where if you go in-person it becomes a shared responsibility between voters and election officials,” Mr. Becker told reporters. “For instance, checking in, validating your identity, making sure you haven’t mismarked the ballot. There are various protections in place that occur in a polling location that don’t occur with mail voting. And if there is a problem with your mail ballot, you are not physically there when that problem is discovered and so you’re reliant upon election officials to give you adequate notice.”

Mr. Becker noted that voters should know that if they have already received a mail ballot but wish to vote in person, they can vote in-person. The best way for voters to do so, he added, was to bring the mail ballot to a voting site and surrender it to election officials who will count it.

More than 41 million people have already voted as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the United States Election Project that is operated by University of Florida political science professor Michael P. McDonald.